Jeanie Bottle 138
This would refer back to Jean during Page 124.
Also, please note that Page 137 doesn’t exist. It looks like CD got some filenames mixed up back then, and just skipped from 136 to 138.
This would refer back to Jean during Page 124.
Also, please note that Page 137 doesn’t exist. It looks like CD got some filenames mixed up back then, and just skipped from 136 to 138.
What would he call Araceli putting Neil in a rack?
I’d call that restricting choices. Jean tried to play with Holly’s mind.
More importantly, back in episode 3 or 4, wasn’t that force when Jean pinned Neil to the wall and said that he would wish Jean had never found the bottle?
I think that in the universe of this strip there are 2 types of “laws” for genies. There are clearly some laws of nature (think gravity) that limit what a genie can do. So, Jean could not change how the cheeleader thought or felt about Melvin. We’re still finding out what the consequences of that are . . .
The second type of law is more custom and written rules. Probably a genie is not supposed to hurt her master, but there is nothing stopping her except the rules and whatever enforcement the genie’s ruling council does to punish it.
Jean admitted fault? STOP THE PRESSES!
I believe this episode should be 137. The previous one was 136.
But… it seemed like she didn’t actually try to force that cheerleader, just talked with her and then admitted to the intent to do so once talking proved pointless…
What do you suppose Jean(nie) was trying to do with that last spell, when her powers went “dong” instead of “poof,” eh? Maybe violating a fundamental rule? Ya think? (Too bad neither she nor Neil got around to reading that book.)
I believe she tried it, but she got a “Dong” instead of a “Poof”. And from then on her magic didn’t work anymore and in the next episode she got transformed to a ghost.
See, this is why you don’t mess with someone when you got powers that will backfire.
In panel 5, lengthy Kazom speech, each “it’s” should be “its.” “It’s” = “it is.” “Its” is the possessive of “it.”
I suspect what is good for the gander is also good for the goose. I doubt Neil could will Genie to be a good person or will Aracelis eating habits to change either.
The difference is, Neil can’t put a hypno-whammy on the genie and make her do as he he wants. All he can do is say, “I, as master, so command it!” (To which Jean would reply, “Yeah, right, whatever.”) The Genie Rulebook says that masters commanding genies is not only acceptable, but it’s the nature of the relationship.
But he could command her to use her magic to accomplish the same goals, even on herself. You are right. May jens might try to comply. It would not be fair for her to be docked then.
Also, as politically incorrect is it is considered to be nowadays, this is a master-slave relationship — there are (so far in 137 strips) no restrictions on what a master may command of a genie. I don’t know if a master commanding a genie to change her own thoughts would succeed, but there’s no rule against it. But like I said, the relationship between human and genie is a master-slave relationship; but the comedy in this strip comes from the fact that Neil acts like the exact opposite of a master, and Jean acts like the exact opposite of a slave. Bottom line, there is no “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander here,” quite the opposite.
You areaking some unfounded assumptions there.
“this is a master-slave relationship”
That’s been the key assumption in my reading of the strip from the beginning.
I’m hoping we’re seeing both Jeanie and Neil learn their respective roles. Jeanie needs to learn how to serve, and Neil needs to learn how to command.
you have on the left top page part 138 instead of part 137,
I enjoy I Dream of a Jeanie bottle story.
I dunno. There are plenty of stories, modern and ancient, about genies who find the worst possible way to interpret their “master’s” wishes. There was a great illustration on-line years ago (of course, I can’t find it now) about how a GM can use genies in RPGs. It showed a man who had just wished for all of his attribute points to be raised, but the genie interpreted this as “razed.”
Then again, these are your genies to control. Good luck.
I like her big,smoky hips 🙂
The only real problem I have with this is that humans are supposed to have free will… but Jean got transformed into a genie against his will and had his own freedom of choice stripped from him.
He made the choice (although unimformed) by touching the lamp.
At this point, the million dollar question aught to be “If genies can’t force a human to do anything, why are you guys forcing me to be a genie!!”
testing-this-out: “[Jean] made the choice (although unimformed) by touching the lamp.”
Ee-yup.
More importantly, Jeanie’s will was not affected.
The set of choices available to her changed, but then, the choices available to us are never under our control. That does not make us slaves in the sense of destroying our free will. Limited choice is a necessary, unavoidable condition of existence for anything with any degree of self awareness.
Far from being a slave as we think of it, Jeanie’s been given enormous power; the range of choices available to her has expanded to near infinity. As has been said, she at the very least has the power to interpret her masters’ wishes as she sees fit. Not even thermodynamics constrains her.
But at nearly every step since, she’s made horrible, selfish choices. She’s even chosen to remain ignorant of the few constraints now laid upon her, and has now tried to destroy the will of someone else, to enslave another girl to a blinkered nerd.
Neil, too, has been given enormous power: the power of command over a being of cosmic power. He’s not a slave, but he acts like one, decides like one. Worse, he’s even abandoned the essential lessons of his training as an engineer. Rather than evaluating the capabilities of the system he now finds himself in control of, he randomly pokes buttons based on obviously flawed assumptions. He does not then evaluate the results of his choices and make new ones.
In fighter pilot parlance, he has abandoned the OODA loop: He does not observe, he remains disoriented, he doesn’t decide based on the available data, and he consistently fails to act. All he did was read the manual, but failed to understand what it implied for him, as Master.
He’s found himself the pilot a hugely capable craft, glanced at the manual, and then pushed Autopilot (without setting the parameters) and went back to reading manuals having to do with systems that are no longer relevant, occasionally poking at this or that button as if trying the preselects on a car radio.
For both Jeanie and Neil, this will be a huge learning experience, and those are always painful.